Chinese diving star Gao Min has sparked controversy by blaming the poor performance of her country’s swimmers on excessive doping tests. On social media, Gao claimed that the seven daily doping tests hinder the athletes’ performance.
Following suspicions of attempted cover-ups of doping tests by the Chinese swimming team ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, doping checks on Chinese athletes have reportedly become stricter at the current Paris Olympics. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Gao posted on Weibo, “The swim team’s performance was disrupted by drug testing seven times a day.”
Gao expressed frustration, stating, “I hope those who have been speaking online that gold medals are not important and how relaxed the foreign athletes are can just stop talking now. If gold medals truly don’t matter to them [the foreign people], then why are they so obsessed with how many doping tests our Chinese swimming athletes have to go through every single day?” Her post has gained over 2.7 million views so far, creating a significant impact.
The SCMP reported that her comments have sparked a debate over the unfair treatment of Chinese swimmers. Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei secured a bronze medal in the women’s 100m butterfly, while Qin Haiyang finished seventh in the men’s 100m breaststroke. Gao described these results as the worst in the past two years and claimed they resulted from a conspiracy by Europe and the United States.
Three years ago, before the Tokyo Olympics, doping tests on 23 Chinese swimmers detected banned substances, but no sanctions were imposed. This led to suspicions of a cover-up by Chinese officials, raised by the media in the United States and Australia. The substance found in the athletes’ urine samples, trimetazidine, is known to increase blood flow and improve oxygen supply in the body.
At that time, Chinese officials explained that the results were due to the athletes consuming hotel food contaminated by small amounts of trimetazidine. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) could not find evidence to refute this claim and concluded that the athletes did not take the substance intentionally, allowing them to participate in the Tokyo Olympics.
Of the 23 Chinese swimmers competing in the Paris Olympics, 11 had issues with doping tests during the Tokyo Olympics, leading to increased doping testing for them. Yu Liang, the Chinese swimming team’s nutritionist, complained that the athletes underwent an average of 5 to 7 tests per day during their first ten days in France.
World Aquatics confirmed that Chinese swimmers underwent an average of 21 doping tests each before the game, nearly four times more than American athletes. The SCMP suggested that this excessive testing may have impacted the Chinese athletes’ performance.
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